Hyunsik Jeong

Infosec Researcher

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I began my journey in information security with PLUS, a university club at POSTECH in South Korea. I mainly studied reverse engineering and cryptography, and achieved notable results through CTF competitions, including being a finalist of the DEF CON CTF for four consecutive years. After completing my undergraduate studies, I earned my Master’s degree at the Graduate School of Information Security, KAIST, under the supervision of Prof. Yongdae Kim and Prof. Insu Yun. Most recently, I worked at Theori, and I continue to compete in CTFs with perfect blue, achieving impressive results.


Work Experience

Senior Researcher

Theori | Sep 2023 - Aug 2025

  • Wrote numerous challenges for Dreamhack CTFs, including Dreamhack Invitationals
  • Conducted research on diverse topics, and integrated the results into Dreamhack lectures

Senior Researcher

S2W | Jan 2022 - Sep 2023

  • Ransomware research - mainly on breaking cryptographic features
  • Cryptographic analysis and offensive research

Software Engineer

Kodebox | Oct 2018 - Dec 2019

  • Mainly developed the blockchain called CodeChain (Link) in Rust
  • Developed blockchain node APIs in TypeScript
  • Studied various cryptographic methods used in blockchain technologies

Research Intern

Netmarble | Jun 2018 - Aug 2018

  • Interned at Netmarble AI Revolution Center (NARC)
  • Studied reinforcement learning algorithms, including TRPO & PPO

Projects

Analysis of the Correctness of Qualcomm Hexagon Emulators and Decompilers via Differential Testing

Open Source (Link)

For the master thesis. Analyzed Hexagon emulators (hexagon-sim from the Hexagon SDK, QEMU) and a decompiler (binja-hexagon) with the differential testing tool.

Verifiable Gacha System

Open Source (Link)

A class project. Built a gacha platform with a VRF (verifiable random function). Users can fully access gacha logs, including verifiable random values. Still, only the server can generate random values.

Awards

2025

2nd place

DEF CON CTF
Team: Blue Water
2025

1st place

Codegate CTF
Team: Blue Water
2025

1st place

Plaid CTF
Team: Blue Water
2024

2nd place

DEF CON CTF
Team: Blue Water
2024

1st place

Codegate CTF
Team: Blue Water
2023

1st place

CTFtime
Team: Blue Water
2023

1st place

0CTF/TCTF
Team: Blue Water
2023

1st Place

WACON Final
Team: perfect blue
2023

2nd Place

DEF CON CTF
Team: Blue Water
2023

1st Place

Plaid CTF
Team: Blue Water
2022

1st place

0CTF/TCTF
Team: perfect r00t
2022

Finalist

DEF CON CTF
Team: perfect r✪✪✪t
2022

1st place

Google Capture the Flag
Team: perfect r✪✪✪t
2022

1st place

Plaid CTF
Team: perfect r00t
2022

1st place

Real World CTF
Team: perfect r00t
2021

1st place

CTFtime
Team: perfect blue
2021

Finalist

DEF CON CTF
Team: Perfect ⚔️ Guesser
2021

1st place

Google Capture the Flag
Team: perfect blue
2021

1st place

Plaid CTF
Team: perfect blue
2020

1st place

CTFtime
Team: perfect blue
2020

1st place

HITCON CTF
Team: Perfect ⚔️ Guesser
2020

Finalist

DEF CON CTF
Team: koreanbadass
2019

Finalist

DEF CON CTF
Team: seoulplusbadass
2019

1st place

Codegate CTF (University division)
Team: PLUS
2018

Finalist

DEF CON CTF
Team: KaisHack PLUS GoN
2017

Finalist

DEF CON CTF
Team: hacking4danbi
2017

26th place

ACM-ICPC Asia Daejeon Regional
Team: Master Spark
2016

10th place

ACM-ICPC Asia Daejeon Regional
Team: Master Spark
2014

Gold prize

Korean Olympiad in Informatics
Team: (None)

Written Challenges

Asian Cyber Security Challenge (ACSC)

2024
Jenga, Command Runner (Link)
2023
SusCipher (Link)
2021
CBCBC, Pickle Rick, (Link)

Blue Water CTF

2024
Counter Strike (with soon_haari), Fruit Math, MD 5.01/5.1, OORM

pbctf

2023
Blocky 0/4/5, My ECC Service 1/2
2021
Alkaloid stream, Steroid stream, GoodHash, Yet Another PRNG, Yet Another RSA, Binary Tree (Link)
2020
RGNN, Special Gift, Special Gift Revenge, LeaK, Find rbtree (Link)

CODEGATE CTF

2023
[Quals] My File Encryptor
[Finals] Cutter
2022
[Quals] Happy S-box, Very Long Flag Validator
[Finals] Hidden Command Service

Whitehat Contest (화이트햇 콘테스트)

2021
printf, Great Counter

Cyber Operation Challenge (사이버작전 경연대회)

2020
Empty File, The Secret Recipe, Moving, Chemical Encryptor, Rusty Pick

POSTECH Programming Competition (PPC)

2019
C - Heights | F - Linear-Feedback Shift Register | I - Kaka & Bebe (Link)
2018
A - Caesar Cipher | G - Turf Wars | I - Line of Bentham (Link)